The speaker vent is a small tube in a clarinet that assists the player in changing from the low register to the next higher register. More particularly, the vent serves the function of breaking the vibrating column of air within the bore of the clarinet into further acoustical segments.
The small speaker vent also acts as a musical note called "throat" tone B.music-flat.. In existing clarinets, the sound of this note is weak and fuzzy. Many attempts have been made at correcting the weakness of the "throat" B.music-flat. tone with mechanisms that switch from the speaker vent to a lower alternative tone hole for B.music-flat.. Most of these prior art solutions necessitated added mechanisms.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,508,550 (Stubbins) teaches a speaker vent located at a node in the low register of a clarinet for producing upper register tones. A separate "resonance" hole is spaced circumferentially downstream from the register hole for producing, when opened with the speaker vent and the A key, a better B.music-flat..
U.S. Pat. No. 2,951,414 (Christensen) teaches a mechanism associated with the register vent key by which an outlet of a size smaller than the conventional size of a register key may be opened to function exclusively when the tones A, A#, B and C just above the staff are produced, to sound these tones in correct pitch.
U.S. Pat. No. 706,557 (Heckel) teaches two separate holes on opposite sides of the clarinet at the approximate location of the normal vent, and added mechanisms for opening and closing the separate holes simultaneously
U.S. Pat. No. 2,226,536 (Selmer) discloses a woodwind instrument, such as a clarinet, in which the speaker vent inside the clarinet is surrounded by a tubular cap or body, forming a resonant space opened freely toward the inside of the clarinet. The resonant space or chamber around the vent tube is said to provide for musical notes of enhanced timbre, purity and intensity.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,867,146 (Mazzeo) teaches the use of the lower side "B.music-flat." hole with a mechanism that utilizes a different fingering from the usual clarinet fingering, and a cancellation mechanism which can revert to the standard clarinet fingering utilizing the prior vent B.music-flat..
According to an aspect of the present invention, a speaker vent is provided having larger tube volume than hitherto provided, resulting in the sounding of a strong and better B.music-flat.. There is no added mechanism or change of fingering.
According to the preferred embodiment, the larger volume speaker vent incorporates an intermediate chamber in the middle of the vent tube to provide the required volume. This combined tube and chamber serve the dual purpose of speaker vent and throat B.music-flat..